[UK] BT transforms phone network

Moriarty

BT transforms phone network (BBC)

BT is planning to rebuild its phone network in the UK in a radical move that will cost billions.

It could change the way people use their phones and allow most people with a BT phone line to plug into broadband using computers, mobiles or other devices.

It could also mean that mobiles and fixed lines become interchangeable, with the same number and bill.

BT plans to convert the majority of its customers to the new network by 2009.

Dubbed the 21st century network, the technical work requires a gradual closing down of the old Public Switched Telephone network (PSTN) to make way for an internet protocol (IP) network.

BT will spend around £3bn on the project - more than the annual spend on Britain's main roads - and is hoping that a raft of new services will be possible on the back of it.

The switchover should be undetectable to its customers.

"We anticipate that millions of people will use the phone in the same way," said Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale.

"But customers who want to can switch to broadband themselves and plug any device into the network. The strategy is based on the idea of broadband everywhere," he said.

BT will begin trials of the IP network in 18 exchanges in London, Kent and East Anglia.

By January 2005, 1,000 customers will be connected. This will rise to 3,000 by June 2005 and major rollouts to all regions will begin in 2006.

BT believes the new IP-based network will be a lot simpler than the PSTN one and is hoping to make around £1bn saving per year by the time the network is complete.

For the lucky few BT is also trialling the use of fibre instead of copper, which will offer customers super-fast broadband speeds.

Around 1,5000 customers in Suffolk, Milton Keynes and Docklands will be selected to take part in the fibre trial which will be up and running in the autumn.

Despite speculation about the benefits of a ubiquitous fibre network, BT has no plans to lay it throughout the UK, concentrating instead on areas where new houses are being built.

Matt Beal, the man charged with heading up the conversion to the 21st century network, admits that this could create a new digital divide.

"There is that risk but complete conversion is not possible," he said.

He outlined some of the advantages of the 21st century network for customers.

"They could set up conference calls with their families, have video streaming and voice-activated phones," he told BBC News Online.

Another advantage will be the ability to bypass the phone network entirely and make cheaper calls over the internet.

This could severely dent BT's revenues but the telecommunications firm is remaining upbeat, describing internet telephony as "an opportunity not a threat".

Mr Beal hinted, however, that the cheap broadband telephony deals available at the moment may not continue.

"The charging model of today may not be realistic in five years time," he said.

TIMETABLE OF CHANGE

• 2004 - fibre optic trial
• 2005 - Broadband available to 99.6%
• 2006 - Mass migration to IP network
• 2009 - network available to most customers

limpdd

Ohh why can't we get BT to buy €ircon??
That way we might get something like this done (although I doubt it)

bk

Originally posted by limpdd
Ohh why can't we get BT to buy €ircon??
That way we might get something like this done (although I doubt it)

BT own Esat.

It wouldn't make any difference anyway, BT are as bad as Eircom, the only reason they are doing this is because they are under massive competitive pressure from companies like NTL and Vodafone.

Urban Weigl

BT may own Esat, but Eircom own the infrastructure, so they can not upgrade it here. They are upgrading it in Northern Ireland, where they do own it.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Moriarty
TIMETABLE OF CHANGE

• 2004 - fibre optic trial
• 2005 - Broadband available to 99.6%
• 2006 - Mass migration to IP network
• 2009 - network available to most customers

The fibre optic trial is really a separate issue to the rest of the story and I would not pay too much heed to it. We will need to wait and see if this translates into an actual rollout in new housing in Britain. BT are at least being honest in admitting that they won't be rolling it out to already wired housing. Why undermine their existing investment?

It is in BT's interest to trial various technologies in order to assess their technical feasibility but whether they roll them out on a wider scale depends on what sort of competitive threat they are under. This is also the case in Ireland where Eircom trialled DSL for four years prior to bringing out a service in 2002. They were almost going to bring out DSL in 2001 in order to meet the threat of NTL's cablemodem service however they cancelled it after NTL announced their suspension of rollout. Eircom also trialled VDSL (a very high speed version of DSL) in Ennis but nothing, predictably, came of this.

What is more interesting is the IP network story. It looks as if BT have got to the stage where they can now consider attaching large numbers of lines to DSLAMs and offering IP telephony over the existing copper lines rather than the traditional analogue services. This makes a lot of sense for them as they will at some point come under significant competition from VoIP companies. They are already under voice competition from the cable companies. BT can counter both of these threats by offering IP telephony. The service should be superior to standard internet VoIP services since BT will be in a position to allocate dedicated bandwidth to calls.

I don't see this happening with Eircom for at least another few years mainly because very few so far have signed up to broadband so far and Eircom aren't up against competing infrastructures like in the UK and other countries. In addition, a lot of Eircom's infrastructure isn't fit for anything other than analogue voice, so it would take very significant infrastructure competition for them to make the massive investment necessary. Nevertheless, it is an option open to them should they need to go down this route.

eircomtribunal

Originally posted by SkepticOne
What is more interesting is the IP network story. It looks as if BT have got to the stage where they can now consider attaching large numbers of lines to DSLAMs and offering IP telephony over the existing copper lines rather than the traditional analogue services. This makes a lot of sense for them as they will at some point come under significant competition from VoIP companies.

Same story with France Telecom. If I remember right, they have announced to reduce their basic rental + dsl package to sub €30 and offer unlimited (voip) calls for an additional €10 per month.

P.